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Britain’s leading swimmers believe seeing athletes earn cash for Olympic gold medals could cause friction in Paris.
World Athletics announced earlier this month that track-and-field stars will take home $50,000 (£39,800) in prize money if they win gold at the Games, breaking 128 years of the Olympic tradition as an amateur competition.
Double Olympic gold medallist Tom Dean, who was announced as part of Team GB’s swimming team for Paris this week, said he thinks the prize money on offer is going to be the talk of the town come the Games.
‘It's quite tough when you are a swimmer and you’ve worked for however many years and someone from track and field has worked just as hard for just as many years is getting these financial rewards for winning medals,’ said Dean, who won 200m freestyle gold in Tokyo.
‘Ask any swimmer and that’s a stark contrast that’s going to be highlighted in Paris.
Tom Dean has argued that swimmers work 'just as hard' as track-and-field stars after it was announced the latter would receive financial prizes for taking gold at the Paris Olympics
Dean, who took two golds in Tokyo, feels the decision could spark friction this summer
‘When I tell other people that we don’t receive any prize for winning Olympic gold medals, that’s always a shock and a surprise.
‘It’s the biggest screen in front of the most people, millions and millions of viewers. People don’t do it for the money but when you see your other Olympic counterparts earning a paycheque than it’s a pretty obvious contrast between the two.
‘I think you could argue that Olympics hasn’t strictly stayed true to being a purely amateur sport because you look at the kind of stars that attend
